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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23472331">Masks And Magic</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ceridawn/pseuds/Ceridawn'>Ceridawn</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Neutral Evil Is Not Mutually Exclusive With Love [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Critical Role (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Essek Week (Critical Role), an exploration of how essek thinks, essek is really very subtle, for a wizard of one of the least subtle schools, the is almost more character study than story</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 06:28:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>513</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23472331</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ceridawn/pseuds/Ceridawn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Essek Theylss is not an illusionist.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>The Mighty Nein &amp; Essek Thelyss</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Neutral Evil Is Not Mutually Exclusive With Love [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1682158</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>74</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Essek Week</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Masks And Magic</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Day 6 of Essek week. Some talk of towers and what Essek hides in his. The Possibility is that, well, Essek is so very close to being a different type of wizard.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Dunamancy is his passion. Power and possibility, breaking rules and boundaries that other see as sacred. Not hesitating to experiment, to try in ways that none of his predecessors before had dared. This study was his purpose, his life. His religion almost, though he did not come at it with the faith of a devotee. No, his work was the mission of one who had found meaning in a world where there was too little. Substance in a world without.</p>
<p>But that did not mean that it was the only kind of magic he knew, that flew from his fingers and danced across his lips. As much as he bent the laws of reality, he also broke the perception of it. Wizards specialize, and dunamancy called to him. He chose it, with its many unknown mysteries. But another school came nearly as easily. Became nearly as much a part of his life. Less a motivator, more of a tool. Utterly necessary.</p>
<p>Really, it should surprise none to discover he had a knack for illusions. His position itself nearly demanded the ability, even if not all of them had historically used them as much as Essek. Or maybe they had and were simply good enough that he was unaware.</p>
<p>In all honesty, he was learning illusions before he was learning spells. The politics of the Dens demanded it. The proud son. The faithful follower of the Luxon. The loyal Shadowhand of the Bright Queen. The better he got at dunamancy, the more he relied on illusions. Smile to set advisors at ease. Change his skin tone to study the Beacon. Grow and hide. One always impossible without the other.</p>
<p>Either way, Essek learned illusions and learned from them. People spend less time searching for flaws to betray a things true nature if what they are seeing is what they expect to see. Anything too good or too bad will be questioned. The best place to cast an illusion is somewhere that is already concealed by shadows. He learned and he improved.</p>
<p>Essek loved dunamancy too much too be an illusionist.</p>
<p>Still, none were surprised when the walls of his towers were lightly touched with illusions, at least not those few who noticed. A Shadowhand is meant to been surrounded by such things after all. If there had been a few more lately, well, no one but Essek himself was aware of that fact.</p>
<p>The Nein had visited often enough to leave traces around his tower. They were important, the little pieces of themselves had left behind. They had to stay.</p>
<p>But they were also a vulnerable point. Not a flag to be waved to draw attention, but something to be concealed. Good things did not stay if other people could see them. Deception was the best protection for things that actually mattered.</p>
<p>And so more illusions layered his walls than before. Protection. One more mask to join the multitude he donned nearly constantly</p>
<p>Essek Theylss was not an Illusionist. Essek Theylss was better with illusions than many masters. He lived with them, after all.</p>
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